Oh mate I think we did not understand each other. I agree and even stated that games like Starcraft 2 (which I play, pretty well might I add as long as I am drunk!) do matter. I play such titles, I even mentioned Call of Chernobyl which when configured for max simulation simply slaughters CPUs. Starcraft 2 looks like an idle test in comparison for single-threaded benches in comparison, it is that bad.
My point is that the performance profile at 720p and at 1080p or above is not QUITE the same. People have this idea that CPU resources are unaffected by resolution (incorrect) and that all things a game needs require similar percentile resources or time to complete. That is not true, unfortunately. Now you will say "OK Alex, fair enough you are right. I will add that nuance. Still at 720P or low resolutions in general we see more of the CPU at work even with that nuance added in." and I would agree with you. I just do not think it matters for most titles bar E-Sports ones. That was my point. It is not me not knowing or disagreeing with you in general.
As for Starcraft and Stellaris (which I admit I do not play) ... egh I am divided. You see old games we can not expect to run perfectly well on new CPUs. I know that and that is the reason why I personally, whilst happy with my 1500X (at least it is never slower than my old Haswell i5!) will wait for Ryzen 3000/Zen 2 before I consider an upgrade. I hope for higher clocks and IPC especially in niche scenarios, from AMD. I play such titles a lot and want good performance in them. What I mean though is that the big onus is on those developers to work on their engines and games. In the case of Starcraft, it still gets dev time and is a popular title even to this day. Stellaris I have not played so I dont know. But if Ashes of the Singularity and Total War can do multi-threading well whilst using MUCH more CPU resources on every single front, and a low budget game like Men of War too can at least use 8 threads well (whilst simulating ballistics, destructible terrain, AI for every soldier, Inventory, armor penetration, destructible buildings and more) ... well there is no excuse. Starcraft 2 should receive an update in general and that would improve performance for all players. We should demand more as gamers too because IPC and clocks are at a wall. They can not improve by much, no matter what Intel or AMD do. At least not with silicon. That was my point.
Should have a small impact but not for Digital Foundry. There it should be zero.
IMHO it would be cool if you can do some CPU tests under ... more unclean conditions. I should likely not mention how many things I have open most of the time else people will mock me
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